Raintree Read online

  Praise for New York Times bestselling author

  LINDA HOWARD

  “You can’t read just one Linda Howard!”

  —Catherine Coulter, New York Times bestselling author

  “This master storyteller takes our breath away.”

  —Romantic Times BOOKreviews

  “Linda Howard knows what readers want.”

  —Affaire de Coeur

  Praise for

  LINDA WINSTEAD JONES

  “Linda Winstead Jones has a magic touch with paranormal, and yes, the pun is intended!”

  —Linda Howard, New York Times bestselling author

  “Nonstop action from start to finish. Jones’ characters are compelling, and her story is both exciting and original. Readers won’t want to put it down!”

  —Romantic Times BOOKreviews on Raintree: Haunted

  Praise for New York Times bestselling author

  BEVERLY BARTON

  “Page-turning suspense and an evolving romance make for a satisfying read.”

  —Booklist on Dangerous Deception

  “Smart, sexy and scary as hell. Beverly Barton just keeps getting better and better.”

  —#1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson on The Fifth Victim

  “With its sultry Southern setting and well-drawn characters, this richly textured tale ranks among the best the genre has to offer.”

  —Publishers Weekly on What She Doesn’t Know

  Dear Reader,

  My friends Beverly and Linda and I have worked on the concept for these books for about four years. We’ve spent hours and hours discussing them, playing with ideas and laughing our heads off. Not that these books are funny, but after a while we’d get sort of punch-drunk and go off on tangents. One such tangent was limericks (There was a young man from Paducah…), which of course had nothing to do with the Raintree books.

  We loved working out the mythology behind the Raintree, extraordinary people trying to live in the ordinary world without being found out. We loved the characters. They are all very human, and at the same time they are…more than human. I hope you enjoy them, too.

  Linda Howard

  LINDA HOWARD

  BEVERLY BARTON

  LINDA WINSTEAD JONES

  RAINTREE

  THE RAINTREE TRILOGY NOW IN ONE EXCITING VOLUME

  CONTENTS

  INFERNO

  BY LINDA HOWARD

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  HAUNTED

  BY LINDA WINSTEAD JONES

  GIDEON

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  SANCTUARY

  BY BEVERLY BARTON

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  LINDA HOWARD

  INFERNO

  To Beverly Barton and Linda Winstead Jones, for the years of friendship and all the fun we had planning these books, and to Leslie Wainger, for being everything an editor should be, as well as a friend.

  PROLOGUE

  There have always been those among us who are more than human. At first they were few, but like always calls to like, and so it was from the beginning, when mankind was new and clumped together in fire-lit caves. Sometimes they were driven out by fear and fists wielding clubs. Sometimes they simply left, seeking others like them. And though they were few and the earth was large, they found each other, drawn by the very instinct and power and knowledge that set them apart from the very beginning—and by the will to survive, for only in numbers was there safety.

  In time those numbers grew large, and there was strife between those who wanted to use their powers, their otherness, to take what they wanted from the weaker humans, and those who wanted to live in harmony with the Ungifted. Over seven thousand years ago they split into what became two tribes, and then two kingdoms: the Raintree and the Ansara.

  The two kingdoms then locked into eternal war, and earth in all her dimensions became the battleground.

  So it was, and so it is.

  ONE

  Sunday

  Dante Raintree stood with his arms crossed as he watched the woman on the monitor. The image was in black and white, to better show details; color distracted the brain. He focused on her hands, watching every move she made, but what struck him most was how uncommonly still she was. She didn’t fidget, or play with her chips, or look around at the other players. She peeked once at her down card, then didn’t touch it again, signaling for another hit by tapping a fingernail on the table. Just because she didn’t seem to be paying attention to the other players, though, didn’t mean she was as unaware as she seemed.

  “What’s her name?” he asked.

  “Lorna Clay,” replied his chief of security, Al Rayburn.

  “Is that her real name?”

  “It checks out.”

  If Al hadn’t already investigated her, Dante would have been disappointed. He paid Al a lot of money to be efficient and thorough.

  “At first I thought she was counting,” said Al. “But she doesn’t pay enough attention.”

  “She’s paying attention, all right,” Dante murmured. “You just don’t see her doing it.” A card counter had to remember every card played. Supposedly counting cards was impossible with the number of decks used by the casinos, but no casino wanted a card counter at its tables. There were those rare individuals who could calculate the odds even with multiple decks.

  “I thought that, too,” said Al. “But look at this piece of tape coming up. Someone she knows comes up to her and speaks, she looks around and starts chatting, completely misses the play of the people to her left—and doesn’t look around even when the deal comes back to her, she just taps that finger. And damned if she didn’t win. Again.”

  Dante watched the tape, rewound it, watched it again. Then he watched it a third time. There had to be something he was missing, because he couldn’t pick out a single giveaway.

  “If she’s cheating,” Al said with something like respect, “she’s the best I’ve ever seen.”

  “What does your gut say?” Dante trusted his chief of security. Al had spent thirty years in the casino business, and some people swore he could sp